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Early photo of Ada's railroad park

Posted by Fred Steiner on Monday, November 19, 2018

Ada's railroad park has a long history in the community. Here's one of the earliest photos of the park. This is a colorized post card from the collection of Lee Crouse. According to Jimmy Wilson, the Civil War cannon is aimed toward Fort Sumter, South Carolina, where the war erupted on April 12, 1861.

According to Crouse: "The girl on the bench at the railroad park was Alice W. Gessaman-Cotner born May 23, 1910, and died in Bluffton May 18, 2004.

Notice a couple interesting features of this photo:
• The unknown photographer took the photo when a passenger train was at the depot
• It's quite likely that the four people - two men and a woman and girl - may be models, posed for the photo
• The trees in the photo are fairly mature. Based upon known birthday of the young girl, this photo from the mid-1910 era. So, the trees could have been planted around the time that the cannon was put in place.
• Notice the top of the building on the northside of the train. It is still there today.
• The depot appear identical in the photo as it does today.